Question for Toros: Is It a Diamond or Boxing Ring?

In his first season as baseball coach at Cal State Dominguez Hills, George Wing lacked offense. So he went out and recruited a bundle of hitters for this year. Now it can’t be said that the Toros lack punch.

Dominguez Hills has been involved in several bench-clearing fights this season, the latest last Friday in a California Collegiate Athletic Assn. contest at home against Cal State Los Angeles. The Toros were coming from behind to win when a Dominguez Hills player bunted toward first and was tagged out--forcibly--by the Eagles’ first baseman. The Toros felt the fielder could have beaten the runner to first and went out of his way to apply a rough tag.

Cal State L.A. observers don’t disagree with that version, but add that they had felt provoked. Before the game, they say, the Toros did stretching and other warm-up exercises that interfered with the Eagles’ infield practice.

The Toros were also in a brawl at Chapman College in March when the Dominguez Hills infield took exception to a hard slide into second base by a Chapman runner. The Toros were already irritated by what they perceived to be taunting by a Chapman player who had hit a home run to take the lead the inning before.

Whatever the reasons, it’s a change in personality for the Toros, and not entirely welcome at the Carson school. The fight with Cal State L.A. was costly: Speedy outfielder George Scott, apparently trying to be a peacemaker, tripped over someone in the pileup and tore knee ligaments. Scott and his .354 average are lost for the season.

Said Wing: “It’s not anything we went out looking for. Both times it was in the heat of competition, and the two incidents were brought on by the opposing teams. Our guys responded. I don’t agree with how they responded, but both were situations where it was instantaneous and we were not the aggressors.”

Indeed, the opposing coaches in the fights with Dominguez Hills say they don’t blame Wing and still consider him one of the good guys in the CCAA. In general, college baseball teams, which see TV replays of fights between pro baseball teams these days, just seem to be emulating the major leaguers more often.

Toro Athletic Director Dan Guerrero, who played baseball at UCLA, has asked the team to cool it. “Obviously we don’t condone any of those situations,” Guerrero said. “When I spoke (to Wing), it was to convey the message we want to be aggressive, but not to that point.”

Wing agreed: “Hopefully, we’re gonna lay low on that.”

However, Guerrero couldn’t resist a dig: “Just call us the battling Toros.”

And take no prisoners.

Wing’s biggest problem this season has been pitching. The Toros dropped to seventh in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. last season due largely to lack of offense, so Wing recruited a number of outstanding community college hitters who have made an immediate impact.

However, the Toro pitchers have rarely been able to hold down opposing lineups. In the team’s recent 10-game losing streak, Wing said, six of the games were lost by one run although the Toros averaged more than eight runs a game in that stretch.

Wing places much of the blame on himself and his assistants. “We didn’t do a real good job with the pitching staff from a coaching standpoint,” he said Thursday. “It hasn’t been a real strong learning experience for (the pitchers) this year. I thought we brought in some quality guys (recruits). I’m more in the market for a pitching coach for next year.”

Meanwhile, Wing and the Toros haven’t given up on this season. They are 16-20 (with two ties) going into the weekend and are still intent on finishing at .500 or better. And with seven CCAA games left, the Toros are in a dogfight for the upper division.

“We’ve got a chance,” Wing said. The Toros just need to rearm themselves. “We have to shore that whole (pitching) thing up,” he said.

Loyola Marymount’s latest tribute to Hank Gathers was unveiled Thursday in the gym--a banner attached to the main scoreboard in Gersten Pavilion that reads “HANK’S HOUSE” with a large 44, Gathers’ uniform number.

However, this tribute is slightly different from previous ones, which have included testimonials from the Los Angeles City Council and the California Legislature. This one was conceived and funded by the other athletic teams at Loyola for the late basketball star. The project was spearheaded by water polo player Tim Bass.

The banner, which also includes the uniform numbers of the other members of the basketball team, was officially shown in a noontime ceremony Thursday.

Offensive Punch: Dominguez Hills freshman infielder Melissa Punch, on the strength of a strong second half, has taken the softball team lead in both batting average and runs batted in and is within reach of several school records going into Saturday’s season-ending double-header at Toro Field.

Punch, a multisport star at Culver City High School, goes into the noon twin bill against Cal Poly San Luis Obispo batting .394, owning a school-record 17-game hitting streak and leading the Lady Toros with 25 runs batted in. She is on line to break the school hitting mark of .370 set by Judy Staab in 1982, and needs three RBIs to top the school mark set by teammate Maria Romero last year. Punch is also tied for the school record of eight doubles, co-owned by Romero (1989) and Barb Steffen (1986).

Stat of the Week: Left-hander Armando Gomez became the first Cal State Dominguez Hills pitcher to throw a shutout this season when he blanked Cal State Los Angeles, 3-0, last week. The Toros have a team earned-run average of 6.07 but Gomez stands at 3.15. The Toros, who have a .299 team batting average, have yet to be shut out this year.

College Notes

The Dominguez Hills baseball team takes a break from conference play to travel to The Master’s College for a 2:30 p.m. game today. The Toros are 16-20-2 overall and 8-15 in the California Collegiate Athletic Assn. . . . Dominguez Hills third baseman Fred Camarena continues to hit better than .400 and challenge the school record. Camarena entered the week batting .403. Ruben Jauregui, now a Toro coach, set the school mark of .406 in 1987. . . . The Loyola combined crew teams placed seventh in the State Schools Crew Championships at Sacramento, led by the men’s varsity eight, which placed a close third. The top teams were UC Davis with 110 points and UC Santa Barbara with 73. Loyola totaled 19 points. . . . Loyola’s men’s and women’s tennis teams each placed third in the West Coast Conference championships over the weekend. The University of San Diego won the men’s title, while Pepperdine won the women’s.